On Sunday, July 8, 2018, I brewed my first festbier. It is the recipe from Dave Carpenter’s “Lager” book. I used Saflager 34/70 yeast versus his Munich yeast so we’ll see how it turns out. As brew days tend to go, this one had a few unexpecteds to overcome. Also, I have learned that lager yeast do not care for a bunch of calcium, so I added all my calcium chloride to the mash. I treated my sparge water only with lactic acid to drop the pH. I did use the appropriate amount of Campden tablet to the brewing water.
RECIPE:
VITALS:
Batch size: 5.25 gallons
OG = 1.060
FG = TBD (1.014 expected)
%ABV = TBD (6.1% expected)
SRM: 4.7
IBU: 27.2
Boil time: 105 mins. (90 mins recommended)
GRAINS:
8 lb Pilsner malt
3 lb Vienna malt
7 oz Carahell
HOPS:
1.75 oz Hallertauer Mittlefrueh 4.3%AA at 60 mins.
0.50 oz Hallertauer Mittlefrueh 4.3%AA at 5 mins.
YEAST:
2 packs Saflager 34/70
WATER:
2.74 grams Calcium chloride in the mash
1.0 mL Lactic acid 88% in the mash
0.4 mL Lactic acid 88% in the sparge water
FERMENTATION: Pitch at 46°F and allow to free rise to 50°F. Ferment for ten days or until SG=1.035. Raise temp to 54°F and hold until SG=1.012 or stable, usually four to seven days. Rack into secondary and lager at 32°F for six weeks.
Mashed in targeting 149°F but got 148.1°F for 30 minutes. I checked the pH after about 15 minutes at pH=5.45. I incorrectly calculated the amount and temperature of the water to add for the step infusion to 162°F. I added about 3/4 gals of 178°F water and mixed the mash well. The temp on went up to 149.1°F. Ooph! So I heated up the water to 209°F over several minutes and added about 5/8 gallons and got the temp up the 153°F. Geez!
So, this brew day was my first attempt at decoction! I pulled what I figured was about 1/4 of of the thick mash into a stock pot and brought it to a boil, stirring to keep from scorching. I let the decoction simmer for 20 minutes and added it back to the mash. This got the mash temp up to 155.3°F. Well, I just let it go at this for about 40 minutes.
I sparged to about 7.2 gallons collected in the boil kettle. I added distilled water to pre-boil volume of 8.0 gallons.
After about 75 minutes into the boil I realized that my boil-off was not a much as I expected, so I decided to boil and additional 15 minutes. So after 90 minutes I began chilling with my chiller rig.
My post-boil gravity was 14.9 Brix, or SG=1.061. Post-boil volume was 5.11 gallons, so I added on bottle of water to get to around 5.25 gallons, with a Brix of 14.7 or SG=1.060. My BeerSmith sheet said my OG should be 1.055 versus the 1.060 I achieved. I think that had everything to do with the step mashing and the decoction.
I chilled the wort down to about 38°F and let stand to settle out until the temp rose to 146°F. During the process of running the wort into the fermenter, oxygenating for two mins, and pitching the yeast, the temp was now 149°F. I put the fermenter in the fridge set at 146°F and called it a day.
The next morning I set the fermenting temperature to 50°F per the original recipe.
07/15/18 8:20 AM: At 6.72 days into fermentation, the SG=1.034. I set the temperature to 54°F and let it free rise.
